By the time Tony Mutabazi was 11, he had already been through a lot of terrible sadness. When he was 2, he went to live with a foster family. When he was 4, an Oklahoma family took him in as their own.
He lived with his family for seven years before being cruelly left again at a hospital. The sad 11-year-old asked the people working at the hospital when his parents would be back. But they didn’t know why they had to tell him no.Foster care worker Jessica Ward called single foster dad Peter Mutabazi and asked if he could take Tony for the weekend. He thought he would only have the boy for a few days, but he knew what to do after hearing his story.
“By that time, I was crying. “Who would do that?” I asked myself. Peter said this when he talked about when Tony told him what he’d been through.
“Once I found out that the parents had given up their rights and he had nowhere to go, I knew I had to take him,” he said.
Peter, who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been a foster parent for three years and has helped raise 12 kids. He was born and raised in Uganda but ran away from his violent family when he was 10 years old. He was lucky to find someone who helped him with school.
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Tony’s story moved the foster dad, and he and Tony became very close.
“He’s the kindest and smartest kid I’ve ever had. From the start, he’s always called me “dad.” Peter said on Good Morning America, “He really meant it, and he looks up to me.”
“He’s proud to show me pictures of his dad at school and say, ‘Hey, that’s my dad.'” I think that’s one of the best things about him. I had room and money, so I had no reason to get rid of him.
Helps kids who live in places that are risky.
“Because someone helped me, I wanted to help somebody else.”
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In the end, Peter moved to the United States and became a citizen there. He works for World Vision United States, a charity that helps kids in dangerous places.
Jessica Ward from Angels Foster Family Network in Edmond, according to Unilad, said that Tony and Peter’s marriage was “beautiful and amazing.”
She was officially taken in when she was 13 years old.
“[Tony] was having trouble because he had been in foster care and had been hurt when he was left on the street. Peter knew that once he took him in, that was it. “I think Peter and Tony get along so well because he was so young when all of these things happened in his world,” she said.
Tony was 13 when Peter legally adopted him, and they moved from Oklahoma to North Carolina.
Peter said that he and his son like to ride their bikes, watch films, play board games and read books together.
This loving and kind story shows that families don’t have to be the same.
Tony needs a dad who cares about him like Peter does. Please help honour these great people who give us all something to think about.
